Duke University - Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Research Description

Owen Flanagan (Ph.D. 1978, Boston University) came to Duke as Chair of department in 1993, a post he held until 1999. He also holds appointments in Psychology and Neurobiology and is a Faculty Fellow in Cognitive Neuroscience and a steering committee member of the "Philosophy, Arts, and Literature" (PAL) program, and an Affiliate of the Graduate Program in Literature.

He has also had visiting positions at Berkeley, Brandeis, Princeton, Harvard, and La Trobe in Australia University of Vienna as well as several fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

In 1993-94 Flanagan was President of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology.

In 1998, he was recipient of the Romanell National Phi Beta Kappa award, given annually to one American philosopher for distinguished contributions to philosophy and the public understanding of philosophy.

He has lectured on every continent except Antarctica, where however he has been. Besides writing many articles, reviews, and contributions to colloquia, Flanagan has written the following books and edited several:

• The Science of the Mind (MIT press, 1984; 2nd edition, 1991)
• Identity, Character, and Morality: Essays in Moral Psychology, edited with Amelie O. Rorty (MIT Press, 1990)
• Varieties of Moral Personality: Ethics and Psychological Realism (Harvard University Press, 1991),
• Consciousness Reconsidered (MIT Press, 1992)
• Self Expressions: Mind, Morals, and the Meaning of Life (Oxford University Press, 1996)
• The Nature of Consciousness edited with Ned Block and Güven Güzeldere (MIT Press, 1998)
• Dreaming Souls: Sleep, Dreams, and the Evolution of the Conscious Mind (Oxford University, 1999)
• Narrative and Consciousness: Literature, Psychology, and the Brain Co-edited with Gary Fireman and Ted McVay (Oxford University Press, 2002)